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Welcome to the LatinxLab.Studio, our virtual space inspired by the aesthetics of imagined Latinx and Latin American architectures and urban spaces. This website houses our digital humanities projects on storytelling and social justice, including the:

• Department of Chicana/o Studies at CSUF 55 Years and Beyond Virtual Timeline
• Zine Culture and Pedagogy Studio
• Latinx Literary Journalism Database
• Isthmus and Borderlands Podcast

All four projects are part of the Latinx Lab for Storytelling and Social Justice, a project made possible by the Mellon Foundation and are led by faculty in the Chicana/o Studies Department in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at California State University, Fullerton.

LatinxLab.Studio is collaboratively designed by Dr. Mario Alberto Obando, Faculty Lead for the LatinxLab.Studio and Associate Professor of Chicana/o Studies at CSUF;  RJ Ramey, CSUF’s Digital Ethnic Futures Humanities Developer;  and Janel Navarro, Latinx Lab Program Coordinator. All of our LatinxLab.Studio projects housed inside represent collaborative research and development over three years between our CSUF students, staff, and faculty.

As a community academic pulpería, the LatinxLab.Studio offers website guests cultural goods for inspiration in cultivating storytelling for social justice. Opening its doors from the virtual streets of an urban Costa Rican imaginary, the entrance and lobby is designed in the tradition of a community corner convenience store. While we may not have juicy mangos, we do have podcasts that encourage listeners to engage with bittersweet memories, cultural production, visionaries, and endurance found in Central American Studies at the crossroads of Chicanx Studies. While we may not have crispy papitas, we do have enriching panels on zine culture where we discuss art-making in La Horchata Zine and the radical histories and politics of zine-making. While we may not have the spontaneous possibilities of buying lotería, we do have the ever-evolving histories of Chicana/o Studies at CSUF and beyond. And while we may not sell newspapers, we do offer a timely database and archive of the critical literary journalists in Latinx communities.

We welcome you to click past the entrance and lobby into our courtyard where you can imagine catching some shade under a guayaba tree and Mesoamerican spheres, Listen to the Isthmus and Borderlands Podcast and learn about the spaces in between and beyond Central American and Chicanx Studies. Venture off to the left of the courtyard into our Zine Garage Studio and learn from scholars through the Roundtable Discussion on Zine-Making & Pedagogy video. Learn to create your own zine through our 3-part Zine-Making Video Workshop. Exit to the street for a walking tour of the pulperia exterior and find our timeline mural. Learn about our regional and departmental history and interact with our Chicana/o Studies Virtual Timeline. At the end of the walking tour, you’ll find yourself at our database quiosco where you can access our searchable database of Latinx Literary Journalism. Welcome to our imagined space, welcome to the LatinxLab.Studio.

Dr. Mario Alberto Obando
Spring 2025